The Most And Least Educated American Cities In 2017

America's most educated cities are — perhaps unsurprisingly — home to university campuses. Personal finance site WalletHub just released this year's "Most and Least Educated Cities" report. To determine which cities are home to the well-educated, WalletHub ranked 150 U.S. metropolitan areas on a series of metrics from share of adults with a bachelor’s degree to quality of public education school system to gender education gap.

"Towns or cities attached to a university certainly have a leg up," says WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez.

Highest ranked cities were clustered on the coastal areas and Florida. Most were college towns, suggesting a share of educated Americans are staying where they earned degrees. This is a trend the Economic Policy Institute suggests should be replicated. "One way to strengthen the economy, the [Economic Policy Institute] suggests, is to attractwell-paying employers 'by investing in education and increasing the number of well-educated workers" according to the report.

Ann Arbor's University of Michigan campus

1. Ann Arbor, MI

Educated workers are aplenty in the small college town southwest of Detroit. Ann Arbor, MI, home to the University of Michigan, is attracting college-educated individuals and earned a score of 95.09 on WalletHub’s ranking system.

The White House in 2016.

2. Washington D.C.

Venture to the Washington D.C. metro area for a glimpse of the White House and to walk among the educated. It's the second highest rated city Though it scored well on degree-holders, it lagged in quality of education and attainment gaps.

Downtown San Jose

3. San Jose, CA

The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area earned a 76.9 on WalletHub's ranking. San Jose has a high share of bachelor's degree holders and graduate degree holders.

Duke University campus

4. Durham, NC

Trailing just barely behind San Jose is Durham-Chapel Hill in North Carolina. This area has double the educational manpower, home to both Duke University and the University of North Carolina, collectively enrolling over 25,000 undergraduates annually.

Capitol building in Madison, WI

5. Madison, WI:

Many college-educated Americans call Madison home. When it comes to a racial education gap, Madison's is large, landing the city in 137th place. This metric "measures the difference between the percentage of black degree holders and the percentage of their white counterparts," says WalletHub.

Widener Library at Harvard University

6. Boston, MA:

The 35 colleges, universities and community colleges in the Boston area help explain its sixth-place ranking. WalletHub included surrounding areas, like Cambridge, which is home to Harvard.

150. McAllen, Texas:

Rounding out the bottom of the list, the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area did not fare well in WalletHub’s rankings. The least educated city in America has the lowest share of associate degree holders and high school graduates.

"Having a good quality public school system sets up a good base," says Gonzalez, who helped compile the report. "Then when we're measuring something like degree holders, that is affected by just having a top university within a city," she noted. Although some cities ranked well in terms of degree-holders overall, they lagged in other metrics, such as a gender or racial gap in number of degree holders.

I am an editorial intern covering leadership in business, education, and politics. My main focus is on creative scientific innovation, education policy and corporate leadership in addressing major challenges in society. I am a rising senior at Northwestern University studyi...